Yugi No Go Oh No!
by moonphantom
Summary: Hikaru No Go - Yu-Gi-Oh! crossover about an interesting game between Hikaru and Yugi.


Yugi No Go - Oh No!  
  
Author's Introduction: When I first heard that Hikaru No Go was coming to the English Shonen Jump, I knew it was going to replace Yu-Gi-Oh as my favorite manga. I wondered if go could ever become even half as popular as Yu-Gi-Oh cards in the US. But, more importantly, I wondered who would win a go game - Yugi or Hikaru. I mean: Hikaru's got a ghost with a thousand years worth of experience backing him up. But, Yugi's got a spirit with a lot more experience with games in general backing him up, and Yugi doesn't lose. This is my answer to that question.  
  
I decided to set the story in "the real world," a place where Yu-Gi-Oh and Hikaru No Go exist as manga and anime and where the characters from the stories exist but are fully aware of the fact that they're anime/manga characters. The story takes place sometime between when Viz first licensed Hikaru No Go and the release of the January 2004 issue of Shonen Jump. It starts in San Francisco because that's where Viz seems to have its headquaters.  
  
The matter of what part of their timelines the characters are in is a bit more complex. It doesn't have much of an impact on the story, but I'll explain it anyway. In one way, the characters are still at the beginnings of their timelines. Specifically, they are at the point in their stories that the Viz translators last translated. However, they have also already been through their stories up to where they are in Japan - in Hikaru's case, the end. Thinking about it too much can only make your head hurt, so I don't advise it. It probably won't have much impact on the story anyway. All you really need to know is that I'm going to give the characters any traits from any time in their series I feel like, but avoid anything that would be a spoiler beyond the first volume or two of either manga.  
  
I don't think the characters have ever read each other's manga. They see each other as coworkers and friends. Hikaru doesn't differentiate between Yugi and Yami Yugi, as he's not even aware that Yami Yugi exists. It's hard to say if the Yugis know about Sai or not.  
  
Disclaimer: In case you haven't guessed, I don't own Hikaru No Go or Yu-Gi-Oh! They are the property of their respective creators and people who aren't me have the rights to them.  
  
Now enough of my babbling. On with the story.  
  
- chapter 1 - the challenge -  
  
A young boy stepped off a plane in the San Francisco Airport. For a few moments, he just stood there looking rather lost. A few people stared at his unusual black hair and blond bangs, but most hurried by without a glance. Perhaps more would have stopped to stare, could they see the figure that followed beside him - a ghost dressed in white robes, looking equally lost and entirely out of place.  
  
"Now where do we go, Sai?" The boy questioned the ghost floating beside him.  
  
"How should I know, Hikaru? I've never been in this country before either," the ghost whined.  
  
"You mean in all your travels with Torajiro, you never came to America to play go?" Hikaru teased the ghost.  
  
"Oh course not! I know history isn't your strong point, but you know that people from Japan didn't travel to America during the Edo period. I don't think anyone here even knew what go was," Sai reminded him.  
  
"Oh yeah..." Hikaru said, feeling a little embarrassed. "Well, Viz said they'd send some one to meet me, so I guess we can just wait here," he said, slouching against a wall.  
  
"Let's play a game while we wait!" Sai suggested cheerfully, poking his head in the half-open book bag where Hikaru had stashed his travel go board.  
  
"No way!" Hikaru protested. "We did nothing but play go on the plane ride here. Besides, whoever's coming to meet us should be here soon."  
  
"True," said Sai, looking disappointed and falling silent.  
  
"Ne, Sai?" Hikaru said after a moment.  
  
"What is it, Hikaru?" Sai asked.  
  
"Do you think Americans are going to like our manga?" Hikaru wondered. "I mean, it's about an old game most of them have never even heard of. They'll probably think go is stupid."  
  
"Go isn't stupid! How can you say that, Hikaru?!" Sai exclaimed sounding shocked and hurt. "I thought you loved go as much as I did."  
  
"I said that's what they would think! Anyway, no one could possibly love go as much as you do," Hikaru replied, mocking the ghost. "But, it doesn't matter what I think. Everyone thinks go looks boring at first."  
  
"But, go isn't boring!!" Sai continued to protest. "Besides, even though you didn't like it at first, you play go all the time now."  
  
"That's only because I have a whiny ghost who won't leave me alone unless I play." Hikaru said and stuck his tongue out at the ghost.  
  
"Hikaru! That's just mean." Sai shouted.  
  
But, before either of them could continue the argument, another voice suddenly interrupted them.  
  
"Hikaru!"  
  
Hikaru spun to face a boy with a hair that made his own look perfectly normal. (It was black and magenta with blonde bangs that stuck up in an entirely unnatural manner.)  
  
"Yugi! Ohayou!" Hikaru shouted in recognition.  
  
"In English, Hikaru" Sai hissed in his ear.  
  
"Gome- sorry. I mean 'Good Morning!'" Hikaru corrected himself, switching to English. "I keep forgetting that I've got to speak English now, and my English is terrible."  
  
"Don't worry about it," Yugi said in Japanese with a smile. "That's what the translators are for, and I speak Japanese too remember."  
  
"Oh yeah," Hikaru said looking at the ground in embracement. "Sai, you made me panic for no reason," he added under his breath.  
  
Then looking up at Yugi (and speaking comfortably in Japanese this time), he asked, "But, what are you doing here in America? Isn't your manga still running back in Japan."  
  
"I've been in America since Viz started running my manga in their English version of Shonen Jump. They asked me to come help you get settled in here and show you how to get to the office," Yugi explained.  
  
"Alright. Do you know where we go to pick up the rest of my luggage?" Hikaru asked.  
  
"I think it's this way," Yugi said pointing in the direction he had come from.  
  
As the two boys set out with Sai floating along behind, Hikaru found himself worrying about whether or not anyone would like go again. "Do you think people here will like my manga?" he asked Yugi as they walked.  
  
"Of course they will. I think it already has a small following here, and Viz wouldn't have licensed it if they didn't think they could sell it," Yugi said with a reassuring smile.  
  
"But, who will want to read a manga about some silly old game," Hikaru sighed.  
  
"Hikaru!! Don't say that about go!!" Sai exclaimed in horror and launched into a stream of protests. "Go isn't silly!! You can't mean that! Hikaru, you know that..."  
  
And although his protests went unacknowledged, Sai continued to shout as Yugi tried to reassure Hikaru.  
  
"People like to read about games," Yugi said. "My manga is full of them and lots of people seem to like it."  
  
"Seem to like it?" Hikaru taunted. "I hear you're always on the cover of Shonen Jump here. Everyone must love your manga."  
  
At that Yugi, turned red in embracement.  
  
"Anyway," Hikaru quickly went on, "that's just because your card game is just another Pokémon or Magic clone and exactly like all the other CCGs Americans already play. Go certainly isn't the next Pokémon," Hikaru said.  
  
If Yugi was offended at having his game called a Pokémon or Magic clone, he chose not to show it, and instead said, "It doesn't matter if anyone plays the game or not. With it being in Shonen Jump, lots of people who wouldn't normally give a manga about go a chance will read it. Some of them might even find out they like go. Before you know it, kids will be selling their Yu-Gi-Oh! cards to buy gobans."  
  
Hikaru gave a small chuckle. Yugi's overly-agreeable attitude was a little odd, but nice and somehow infectious. Hikaru was still worried, but Yugi's friendly pep talk had made him feel better. "Thanks, Yugi. I need to hear that," he said with a grin.  
  
But, Yugi's grin lacked the friendliness that Hikaru had expected. In its place Hikaru sensed the competitive atmosphere that he usually only felt in go games against serious opponents like Touya.  
  
"Let's play a game." Yugi suddenly said in a tone that sounded more like a challenge that a friendly suggestion.  
  
"Let's play, Hikaru! Let's play!" Sai began to shout ,breaking out of the silence he had eventually fallen into after Hikaru ignored his last outburst.  
  
"You know how to play go?" Hikaru asked, surprised.  
  
"Of course. I know how to play many games," Yugi said flatly. "But, the game I had in mind is much older than go. You might say it's a predecessor of go."  
  
"Older than go? I thought go was one of the oldest games sill played," Hikaru said feeling stupid for not knowing more about history for a second time that day.  
  
"No one plays this game much any more. It was popular in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that go was based on it," Yugi explained.  
  
"If no one plays it, then where will we get a board?" asked Hikaru.  
  
"Don't worry about that. I know of a place where we can go," Yugi said in a foreboding voice that made Hikaru wonder what exactly he was getting himself into.  
  
- chapter 1 end -  
  
Thanks for reading my little story. The next chapter will be up eventually. Please comment. I'm anxious to know what people think. 


End file.
